Professional Anarchists And That Terrible Bowling Green Massacre Humor Social Media

Here's one image of the "Bowling Green
Massacre" that's been making its way
around the web

Say what you want about the Trump administration: When somebody there misspeaks, we get a torrent of online humor.

Hey, you need something go get you going.

Today's humor came from President Trump's unfortunate wording in a tweet complaining about protesters opposed to him.

"Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" Trump wailed in a 6:48 a.m. tweet Friday morning.

In case you haven't noticed, "professional anarchist" is more than a bit of  an oxymoron. By definition, anarchists aren't professional..

Then there was the Kellyanne Conway comment about the "Bowling Green Massacre" as justification for the so-called "Muslim Ban" executive order by Trump. She obviously misspoke, since there has been no "Bowling Green Massacre" that anybody can remember.

To be fair, Conway later tweeted that she misspoke, and was referring to a couple terrorists who had allegedly been plotting something around Bowling Green. There was obviously no real life massacre.

More on that in a minute.

It looked like quite a few people were ready to sign up to be "professional anarchists" if the pay was right.

One wag asked: "Wait, how do I become a 'professional' anarchist? What's the pay like? What paperwork do I have to fill out? What qualifications do I need?"

The Bowling Green Massacre got a lot more play, however.

One of the most popular things that popped up was the Bowling Green Massacre Victims' Fund.  If you click on the link, you get automatically transferred to the ACLU donations page.


I saw a tweet from Jimmy Kareliussen (@JMKareliussen) that said: "February 30th will henceforth be known as "Bowling Green Massacre Memorial Day."

Also on Twitter, mormonLIBERALmafia (@VoteMorales) said. "More people would have attended the @realDonaldTrump inauguration but they all died in the Bowling Green Massacre. Sad."

Natasha  Rothwell, (@nathasharothwell)  referencing what looked like Trump's confusion over whether Frederick Douglass is a living person, tweeted, "Saddened and sickened by Frederick Douglass' silence surrounding the Bowling Green Massacre. 

Others counseled people to tone it down regarding the massacre. Justin Shanes (@justinshanes) noted: "Finding these Bowling Green Massacre jokes to be a little too soon. Out of respect, we should wait until it takes place." 

More ominously, outside the jokes, Conway again whined that people aren't "respecting" Donald Trump. The common theme from the Trump folks seems to be that the media ought to just shut up.

I guess they don't want to do things that attract, you know, scrutiny and challenges.

Conway described the media approach to Trump this way, in an interview with radio host Sean Hannity:

"It never took on the aura of respect that it deserved, and if you are nt showing the President and his main spokespeople respect, then you're not showing the office respect, and you are inciting mob mentality if not mob violence."

That's so rich coming from the Trumpsters. Like they show anyone respect. Plus, you gotta earn it, bub. Act like a president and people might start treating you like one, Donald.

And yes, it's the job of the media to inform people. If they choose to protest based on the information about the Trump administration they can, since there's this little thing called the First Amendment.

Besides, with a few exceptions, most of the demonstrations against Trump have been quite peaceful.

So Kellyanne, Quitcherbitchin' and get back to work. And no more alternative facts, please.

Trump And His Supporter Use Media, Hate It, And Are Trolled By It

Donald Trump wants to weaken First Amendment
protections for the media. It's a dangerous idea. 

Say what you want about Donald Trump, but his relationship with the media is......complicated.

I agree with the pundits who say he would have never gotten this far in his inprobable, successful and many say scary success in his bid for the Republican nomination for U.S. President.

After all, he's gotten so, so much free media. People love a train wreck, a controversy, so he's been great for media outlets as people tune in to watch, read or hear the latest outrageous Trump remark.

I'm not sure the media is to blame for Trump's rise or not, but it's something to consider. And Trump should be grateful for all the free 'advertising' he's gotten because he's constantly on the news.

The media attention on him isn't always fawning of course. There's lots of journalists, pundits, comedians, social media wizards and the like who can't stand Trump, who point out all his hypocrisies, bad ideas, racist comments, xenophobia, greed, and ego.

Trump, needless to say, is not a fan of people who even question him. Just ask Megan Kelley, the Fox News anchor who had the gall to ask him vaguely pointed questions months ago in a Republican debate, and Trump still hasn't gotten over jabbing at Kelly on Twitter.

Which leads me to one of Trump's dangerous ideas. At least I think it's dangerous and so do a lot of other people.

He would weaken libel laws to make it much easier to sue media outlets, and win.

According to the Associated Press:

"The changes envisioned by the celebrity businessman turned Republica front-runner would mean that 'when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money,' he said at a rally in Fort Worth, Texas.

Trump added that, should he win the election, news organizations that have criticized him will 'have problems.' He specifically cited the New York Times and The Washington Post."

First of all, if a journalist knowingly broadcasts something that is false and said with malice and can harm a person's reputation, that person can sue for libel and likely win.

You can't sue and win if what is reported is true, or is opinion, you're covered. In other words, you'd open yourself up to a legitimate lawsuit if you accuse Trump of being a child molester, because he is most certainly not. He has not definitely not committed any kind of crime like that.

However, if you broadcast an opinion that his idea to build a wall on the Mexican border is stupid, you're covered. The First Amendment guarantees you can criticize a public figure's positions on any topic he or she discusses.

The Associated Press goes on:

"First Amendment advocates condemned Trump's suggestions.

'His statement shows why we need libel protections,' said Gregg Leslie, legal defense director for the Washington-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. 'Trump gets offended, he gets upset and he wants to sue to retaliate. That's not a good reason to sue someone.'"

Since freedom of speech is in the Constitution and the Supreme Court hs repeatedly endorsed the legal standard, Trump would not be able to change the law through Congress or via executive order. You'd have to amend the Constitution.

The press freedoms we have protect the nation basically from tin pot dictators. If the public learns about politicians and other public figures via an unfettered press, they can vet these candidates, learn about any red flags, and assess for themselves whether they want to vote for a particular person or not.

Also, if the press can freely report on unethical and illegal activity by any public official, that bad behavior can be stopped.

If the First Amendment protections weren't there, politicians and others could get away with anything.

I'm not saying Trump is suggesting loosening the libel laws so he can do bad things. He's not. He just doesn't like getting his ego bruised. But still, his idea is dangerous.

Of course, under the First Amendment, the media can use satire, jokes and other methods to highlight a public figure's foibles.

This was on full display this weekend, when Trump approving re-tweeted a quote that, as it turned out, was said by 20th century Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

It turns out the web site Gawker had created a Twitter bot that posts quotes from Mussolini, but attributes them to Trump. They wanted to see if Trump would re-tweet or otherwise embrace them.

Sure enough, over the weekend, Trump approvingly re-tweeted the Mussolini quote, "It's better to live on day as a lion that 100 years as a sheep."

Trump later defended using the quote on Meet The Press, essentially saying Mussolini was what he was but the quote is good.

Trump's supporters are subject to jokes, too. A video hosted by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, has him sending wwomen posing as "Fox News Girls" to political events to ask Republican voters about Trump and others.

The questions the "Fox News Girls' ask are cringe worthy to say the least. They make up outrageous, made-up policy positions they say liberals voiced and ask Trump supporters to comment on them.

People will believe anything, apparently, as the video shows.

Here's the laugh out loud video: